Portland committee reviews CDBG social-service applications; no funding votes taken

The Portland Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) review committee met virtually Jan. 9 to discuss social-service and related development applications; committee members asked staff questions about underwriting, ownership arrangements and use of CDBG funds but did not take formal funding votes at the session.

Committee members focused on the Youth and Family Outreach relocation request, several housing and navigator programs, immigrant legal services and a mobile medical outreach proposal from the Portland Fire Department. City staff described underwriting work on the housing-related development application and raised compliance questions about CDBG supplanting rules for the fire department proposal.

Rowan, a city staff member, told the committee the administrative application provided in the packet “doesn't need to be approved today, but it would be referenced in your letter” that ranks and scores social-service and development applications. Mary, another staff member, outlined the city's housing-development underwriting process and how low-income housing tax credit applications to the Maine State Housing Authority can leave project numbers in flux until construction financing is closed. “She dots every I, crosses every t,” Mary said of the third-party underwriter, describing a…